Become a Fan

Support the Revolution!

Connect with WDR

WDR Shirts

Who Dey Revolution Manifesto

Preamble

IN THIS TIME of perpetual Cincinnati Bengals incompetence and futility, with zero playoff wins in the nineteen seasons since the WhoDeyRevolution Godfather, Paul Brown, passed away in 1991 and handed the team to his fortunate son, the Despot, Mike Brown;

Introduction

WE, the members of the Who Dey Revolution, in our fervent dedication to the Cincinnati Bengals and fanatical desire to transform our hometown team into perpetual Super Bowl contenders, call for a popular revolution of fans to demand comprehensive reform to the managerial decisions and approach of Cincinnati Bengals ownership, management, staff and players, and hereby call for the adoption of the following Who Dey Revolution Manifesto:

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

October 20, 2009

Thoughts on Weeks 1-6

Hey there WDR readers, I haven't been writing much recently, did you miss me? No? WELL I WASN'T ASKING YOU ANYWAYS.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are my quick thoughts on the current state of Bengaldom (Hobson, Bengals.com) through the first 6 weeks of the season.

The "Real Fans" Argument: People come on this site all the time and claim that the writers and comrades of the Revolution aren't "real fans" because we want the Bengals to change their management decision-making personnel and process. Then there are others who are angry that the team magically seems to have more "fans" whenever the team does well. To them I say, relax. We are talking about sports here. This is not 'Nam. Sports are a distraction from real life, something to enjoy. People enjoy supporting a winner. That is why WDR exists - to try and force the Bengals to change how they do things so the team wins more often. Let's take out the personal attacks and agree that we all want the same thing - for the Bengals to win football games.

The "4-2 Record Means the Revolution is Over" Argument: The NFL is designed to promote parity - every team is hypothetically doing everything they can to get an edge. The league is absurdly competitive. Take a look at the Titans - from 13-3 last year to an embarrassingly putrid 0-6 this year. The margin of error that results in wins and losses is razor thin. To win, teams need to do everything they can to get an edge. Is WDR pleased that the Bengals are 4-2? Yes, yes and yes. But could the Bengals be doing more to ensure that these wins continue, perhaps (GASP!) into the playoffs? YES.

Keeping a Long-Snapper on the team (who is comically easy to replace) was one thing. But get ready for that old Bengals excuse refrain you are all used to - injuries! Every team gets them. Only the Bengals are surprised year after year that some of their players will get hurt. Other teams have depth. The Bengals have an excuse.

Yes, it was unfortunate that Reggie Kelly and Ben Utecht got hurt this preseason. The Bengals drafted a TE as insurance. A TE who worked in a spread offense all through college who never had to block. And now that same TE is not active because he is learning how to block. That's what I call strategery! Instead, the Bengals are throwing out Daniel Coats and JP Futon.

Now the Bengals are going to have to deal with some severe blows to the D-Line. As David Fleming writes: "I worry that the now injury-plagued Bengals are about to become living
proof of the most boring but essential tool in determining success in
the NFL: roster depth. The problem? They have none."

Again, every team gets injuries. Successful NFL teams, the ones with highly functioning front offices, acquire the depth so that injuries can not be used as an excuse for losing. Marvin, Brat and Zimmer can only do so much with sub-standard players who fill in. The injury excuse is just an excuse. It's all Mike Brown's fault.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Brosefus whats up good to have you back Who Dey!! I agree for us guys out here at what point is it ok to start supporting the team again? If we keep winning2-3 years in a row(HAHA) with the same staff.Or is it going to take a complete F.O. turn around?

I agree, Sly. That JP Futon has a real motor on him, just the type of player this team needs to keep the motor running. And Coats? Wow, with some real work on getting him some hands, he could be a great tight end! And if that doesn't work out, maybe we can always move him to DE. You know, pull the old switcheroo with Shirley.

Hey they just solved ALL the problems: Orien Harris is back on the team. He can not only play DE and fill in for Odom, but thanks to Mike Brown's genius observation he can replace one or both of the tight ends, since it's the same kind of thing.

Anybody know how long it took Antonio Gates to crack the Chargers starting lineup? He didn't know how to block coming out of college, either. Maybe, just maybe, the coaches...now stay with me here...the coaches knew ahead of time their best pass-catching TE didn't know how to block and designed ways to get him into the game anyway.

Play Coffman! Sign Rodgers! Trade for McMichael! I like all those suggestions. How much do you think it would take to buy the Brownburns out? I plan on winning Mega Millions next time it's over 150 million, any estimates?
If we arent't careful (better than we look on paper), we're gonna give Matt Forte his first game with decent numbers this Sunday, how about we stay with the running game if it's working eh Brat? Or perhaps if you establish the passing game first we could stay with that? I see people talking about how he stays with his gameplan regardless of the success he has, but unless his game plan is to establish one aspect of the O and then largely abandon it for two quarters, then I disagree.

Sly, nice catch on JP Futon. While writing the article I predicted that I would misspell his last name but felt that his contribution to the team did not warrant my taking the time to look it up, so I have hence named him, "JP Futon." Or, something that is good enough in college, but once you get to the real world you get rid of it.

"This isn't 'Nam" I agree. But you aren't extreme in your efforts to get ownership to change. A Revolution means going to extremes when all other efforts have failed. Name a successful revolution where the participants supported the troops but hated the dictator.

Truth is: You are no different than the commenters on any other site. You're not making a difference until you decide to cross that line. Your partipation here just makes you a fair weather fan with an excuse.

You may be the "revolution", but you are not part of the Resolution, which is what the rest of us want.

@Kato: would do you propose? I mean in terms of building the boycott. That's what we really OUGHT to be discussing here. How do we get more people to stay home? How do we get more people to participate in public displays of dissatisfaction with Mike Brown's incompetence and greed?

Ditto the above. Kato has never given any constructive suggestion beyond "root for the team to lose," which obviously accomplishes nothing besides successfully pouting on a couch Sunday afternoons.

Kato, you've barked quite a lot, and seem to believe pushing to offend everyone as quickly as possible will garner you supporters. If you haven't caught on that such a tactic will only backfire, I'm not sure how to help you. Instead, we simply ask that you propose a working method to your goals, a request you've continually dodged. And really, the goals sound the same: remove Mike Brown from the capacity of making any football decisions. WDR has offered its (active) suggestions on how to help achieve that goal. You've offered insults. So please, enlighten us. I promise if it's reasonable you'll find plenty of people here in concurrence with your aims.

Is there any way a site administrator can check the IP addresses of people who post on here? I've got a sneaking suspicion that Kato is also one of the pro-Bengals, anti-Revolution douchebags that posts here as well. Surely I'm not the only one who noticed that he was conspiciously absent while the Bengals were winning, replaced with the "Bengals are winning so the Revolution needs to close down" guys. Now that the Bengals have dropped another one, those guys went into hibernation and Kato's back. It all seems a little too convenient for me. When the Bengals started winning, Kato should've been pushing even harder for his "Resolution", and now that the Bengals have lost again, the "Bengals are great" guys should be defending them anyway.